Yeah, I haven't really helped the tone of this thread.

I apologize to Dave, 'cause he didn't really deserve the bitching that he got from me a few pages or so ago. Sorry, Dave. I seem to be losing my perspective on this issue.

I still think the Shrub is a dick, and I still think he (and/or his donut) were in on 911 ... but my method of expressing that theory really hasn't helped my cause any.

Britney, however, remains a wuss. [yuh huh]

Anyway, allow me to address one of Dave's points. You said that the fact that this debate was taking place speaks well of America, and I agree. However, this debate is taking place solely in homes and in bars and whenever anybody's dumb enough to pick me up hitchhiking, as near as I can tell. This debate is not taking place in the mainstream media, and it really should be.

The media does report that the FBI and CIA knew about 911 beforehand (I'm glad somebody other than me finally said this -- now that Dave's said it, do you guys believe it?). The issue at hand now is -- why. The spin is incompetence, but I find it difficult to believe that the same people that managed to keep a single explosion from happening on New Year's Eve 1999 -- the same people that knew just which people to grab as they crossed the border from Canada -- were drunk or something on Semptember 10th.

If the Shrub Administration hadn't stood so much to gain, I still might've been willing to write it off to coincidence, but the fact is that it did. I think we've established that fairly well. You can hand out economic theory all you want, and I concede that you clearly know more about economics than I do, but you must admit the possibility that you know more about economics than they do, too. And you can't erase the fact that they clearly did stand to gain a great deal, because they have gained a great deal.

For me, that's still what it comes down to. A crime happens. The entity that stands the most to gain has the power to bring about this crime. That entity also has the power to control the discussion afterwards. How can a person not be suspicious? This is the same culture that puts a husband at the top of the list of suspects whenever a wife is killed. This is the same culture that thinks O. J. Simpson got away with murder. I haven't seen the Shrub try on any leather gloves yet.

Just tell me this much, Dave. Who actually stood to benefit from 911, and who had the power to accomplish it? You turned a critical eye toward the Unocal statement to congress ... let's see you turn a critical eye toward the Shrub Administration spin to America.

[ 07-23-2002, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: Jack, the Little Death ]